Doncaster Rovers get play-off reward for standing by manager Grant McCann

When you start February one place above the Football League relegation line and are 1-0 down to the side immediately below you 95 minutes into your next game, nothing is ever going to be easy.

But Rovers held their nerve, stuck by a manager who did great things in his previous spell at the club and are now on the verge of getting their rewards.

Since the transfer window shut, Doncaster have won 43 points from a possible 54 – by some distance the best record in the division. They went to Gillingham on Saturday on the back of 10 straight wins and when Joe Ironside's diving header and Luke Molyneux's brilliant long-range goal put them 2-0 up at half-time, a new club record beckoned.

But when Doncaster were caught out by a long ball and on-loan Hull City goalkeeper Thimothee Lo-Tutala instinctively stuck up his hand as former Rovers loanee Josh Andrews lobbed him, things took an uncomfortable twist.

Outside his area, Lo-Tutala was red-carded and the first thing substitute Louis Jones did was to fish the free-kick Tim Dieng put through the wall out of his net. Five minutes later Tom Anderson scored an own goal as Conor Masterson tried to put an Andrews header in and Rovers had half an hour to avoid defeat.

As it turned out, they would still have made the League Two play-offs but a 2-2 draw means they go in fifth and unbeaten in 12 games, and with a home second leg against Crewe Alexandra a week on Friday after the May bank holiday meeting at Gresty Road Lo-Tutala will be banned for.

In stoppage-time alone Jones tipped over a header as the full-time whistle blew on the draw at Barrow which confirmed Rovers’ play-off place and Owen Bailey made a goalline clearance. Doncaster’s James Maxwell had a strong penalty claim waved away in the 74th minute.

Sign up to our Sports Editor’s TeamTalk newsletter

Having raised expectations with a summer overhaul, Grant McCann would surely have been sacked at most clubs before the revival started. The League Managers Association should be commissioning his statue now.

Central defender Anderson, who was at the club when McCann took them into the 2019 League One play-offs, insisted the players never lost belief in him.

"The belief in any club, any team is massive and the trust in your team-mates that they'll keep going," he said. "We've got a squad you can trust and that will take you a long way as individuals and a team and carry you over the line.

"Massive credit to the fans for backing us. For two-and-a-half, three years it's not been easy with managers coming and going. Credit to the owners as well for sticking with the gaffer. That's what football is, you see the process, it's not easy."

Previous Rovers sides would have been unable to find the turnaround Ironside’s stoppage-time penalty at Sutton United inspired.

"In previous years, yeah," agreed Anderson. "But the character was shown and we were actually playing well at times and not getting results.

"It's a results-based industry and when you're playing well you keep believing. Luckily from February onwards we've been on a roll.

"It's all been tough but that's in the past now and we've been great in the second half of the season but we've got to keep that positivity going because that can take you a long way."

McCann, typically, refused to get carried away.

"It's nothing yet,” he said “I wouldn't say it was an achievement. The achievement is to get promoted."